NORTHAMPTON, Mass. – Furthering a longstanding commitment to those who have served the nation as members of the military, Smith College recently signed an agreement that will provide tuition assistance to a number of veterans each year.

As a participant of the Yellow Ribbon Program, both Smith and the Department of Veterans Affairs pledge to contribute to the tuition of students who are veterans.

Beginning in the next academic year, Smith will help pay for the education of four students – two undergraduates, one Smith College School for Social Work student, and an additional student in a graduate program.

As part of the program requirement, Smith will offer the tuition aid on a “first come, first served” basis. Interested students should contact Student Financial Services for more information.

Smith’s commitment to serving veterans has been exemplified throughout the college’s history.

It is represented in the Grécourt Gates, which stand as the symbolic entrance to the college. The gates were erected in honor of the Smith College Relief Unit, a group of Smith graduates who went to France in 1917 to help rebuild some villages in the district of the Somme that had been destroyed by the war.

The commitment to veterans also spurred the founding of the Smith College School for Social Work in 1918 to prepare caregivers of World War I soldiers. More recently, the School for Social Work began offering a full military scholarship to a veteran to attract current military personnel committed to addressing the needs of their peers.

Within Smith’s undergraduate population, veterans are accepted to the Ada Comstock Scholars Program. Established in 1975, the Ada program enables women of nontraditional college age to complete bachelor's of arts degrees.

And, through research, numerous faculty members advance the knowledge of the issues that face veterans and their families.

Earlier this decade, Professor Kathryn Basham served as the only clinical social worker on a congressionally mandated committee examining the effects of deployment-related stress. This year, the Smith College School for Social Work partnered with Sesame Street Workshop to assess the responses of veterans and their children to a televised program about the needs of returning military parents.

Smith College educates women of promise for lives of distinction. One of the largest women’s colleges in the United States, Smith enrolls 2,800 students from nearly every state and 62 other countries.